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This week, we announced new product starter kits that will make it easier for companies to adopt software-defined networking in a way that fits their unique networking environments. The kits are designed for three distinct uses — agile datacenters, distributed cloud environments and Big Data applications — avoiding the “one-size-fits-all” starter kit approach of some other vendors. Visit our product page to learn more. Below are our top picks for networking stories this week.

In this week’s PlexxiTube of the week, Dan Backman discusses the benefits of Plexxi’s Big Data fabric beyond Hadoop applications.

eWEEK: Plexxi Launches SDN Starter Kits for Cloud, Big Data By Jeff Burt Plexxi officials want to make it easier for organizations to adopt software-defined networking. Plexxi, a startup in the increasingly crowded software-defined networking (SDN) space, is unveiling three starter kits aimed at agile data centers, cloud environments and big data applications. Company officials said the goal of the starter kits is to give businesses and service providers the tools they need to deploy SDN infrastructures that are tailored to their particular workloads, avoiding what they said is a more one-size-fits-all approach that other vendors are taking.

TechTarget: Networking pros describe their 2015 SDN projects By Shamus McGillicuddy Software-defined networking remained a buzzy but under-utilized technology this year. In 2015, SDN adoption should start to pick up as engineers and architects get serious about the technology. We talked to several networking pros about the SDN projects they’ll be working on next year. While there are some early adopters of the technology, most mainstream enterprises are still in the SDN learning stage. Doug Marschke, CTO of technology services company SDN Essentials, has been helping networking teams run proofs of concept with SDN technology for a few years now, but a large chunk of his time is spent educating enterprise IT teams about SDN.

IT BusinessEdge: NFV and SDN a Virtual Certainty to Dominate Networking in 2015 By Carl Weinschenk Software-defined networks and network functions virtualization (SDN and NFV) made a lot of progress this year, and development continues. Just as importantly, the public profiles of the new approaches are higher and, hence, acceptance more likely. There are no overnight sensations in networking – either in the lab or the board room. Steve Alexander is Ciena’s senior vice president and chief technology officer, so he has a dog in the SDN/NFV hunt. That doesn’t mean that what he says should automatically be discounted, however. He used a post at Network World to suggest that the year ahead will be SDNs’ coming-out party.

CRN: The 10 Biggest Networking Stories Of 2014 By Kristin Bent One thing’s for sure: There was plenty to talk about in the networking industry in 2014. Vendors ranging from VMware to Cisco Systems continued their battle for software-defined networking supremacy; telecom carriers like AT&T made significant inroads with the channel; and a mysterious CEO exit got Juniper Networks partners talking. Here’s a look back at the networking stories that had the biggest impact on the channel in 2014.

Network World: 2015: The year SDN and NFV go mainstream By Steve Alexander Much of 2014 was spent discussing software-defined networking (SDN), network functions virtualization (NFV), and other “new” networking technologies. We also heard debates about the merits of the Internet of Things and what it will do for the world; we wondered whether the Apple Watch would drive an uptick in smart wearables. 2014 was, to an extent, the year of chatter.

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